There are many fasteners designed to be driven by a power actuated gun. These fasteners are used in the construction trades and building industries for supporting and holding pipes, cables, and various other devices. Typically, these fasteners must be driven into stone, brick, or masonry walls. For this reason, power actuated guns have been developed for forcing the fastener into the wall.
One such fastener is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,452,637 issuing on Jul. 1, 1969 to O'Brien and entitled "Fastener and Attachment Therefor". Therein disclosed is a fastener assembly having a tubular body portion with a flange. A plurality of fingers extend outwardly toward the pointed end of a fastener. The fingers frictionally retain the fastener within the muzzle portion of a tool. Another fastener assembly is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,703,883 issued on Nov. 3, 1987 to Losada and entitled "Fastener Assembly". Therein disclosed is a fastener assembly for use with a power actuated fastener gun having a plate forming a depression that is disposed out of the plane of the bearing portion of the fastener. A stud having a pointed end is frictionally retained in the plate so that the pointed end of the stud does not extend below the bearing surface of the plate.
While these and other fasteners have proven useful in many applications, they are not without their inconveniences. While the fastener disclosed in O'Brien can be held within the bore of an actuating tool, there is no bracket or plate from which other devices can be attached. Additionally, the tubular body portion including the downwardly pointed fingers, tends to cause the head of the fastener to protrude from the work surface. The fastener assembly disclosed in O'Brien is also relatively complex and difficult to make inexpensively. Typically, due to the number of fastener assemblies manufactured, any small improvement in design resulting in a small savings in manufacturing costs is extremely beneficial. The fastener assembly disclosed in Losada, while improving the cooperation with the power actuated fastener gun, and facilitating inexpensive manufacture, cannot be easily frictionally retained within the barrel portion of the power actuated gun.
Therefore, there is a need for an improved fastener that can be easily held within a power actuated gun that forms a part of a holding device that does not cause the head of the fastener to protrude from the work surface. There is also the need for improving, however slight, the ease in which fastener assemblies are manufactured.